Category Archives: Reminders

Reading and Myon

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Important!

Parents,

Please click here for an important reminder.

The school has purchased the use of the Myon reading program that we discussed during parent teacher conference in October.  This is a great resource to help with the recommended 20 minutes of reading daily.  If your child visits a reading specialist within our school or reads in their class reading group with me, this means your child is not on grade level and I would expect your child to be using this program at least 4 to 5 times a week.  If your child is reading on grade level, I would recommend them using this program a minimum of 2 times of week.  This program provides great opportunity for reading comprehension at the end of each story.  The program is also a great resource for home projects.  This is a personal library at your finger tips.  It contains many of the subjects students are interested in and this month all home projects are free choice interest based.

Please know, I understand how busy life is, but reading is critical for these students.  We are partners in your child’s education.  I ask that you take a serious evaluation of your home routine and seek a time that fits best for reading.  The Myon program does not require for you to sit with them, they only need access to a computer.  They have learned to log on, in class, and should not need much assistance.  While this program is great, listening to your child read should also be included during the week.

I wanted to make you aware that for the next 2 to 3 weeks all students will be completing their mid-year reading assessments.  This means that if your child meets with our specialists for additional support, they will not be having their groups during this time.  As you are already aware, many of your children did not complete reading over the winter break and now they will not be having their additional support for another few weeks.  This adds up to be a large chunk of time.  I completed in class reading assessments last week for all students who currently read below a third grade level and I was able to notice a considerable slide in those struggling readers from not reading over the break.  This means your child needs your help, especially in these coming weeks in order to keep the momentum going that they have been working so hard to build.

If you have any questions about your child’s reading, please feel free to email me.  I would also be very open to spending time with any parent after school who would like to know more about their child’s reading level, see reading samples, and offer any additional support.  ( I will also present this at February’s conferences).  Scholastic wizard found here, is a great resource that allows you to enter book titles in order to see the books reading level.

Reminder

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Tomorrow, November 20th, is our Gratitude book feast.  Students may bring books from home, small pillow and blanket (needs to fit inside their locker), and a healthy snack to share.  Also, if your child has not turned in their permission slip to attend the field trip, please sent those tomorrow.

 

International Festival

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PLEASE READ

My favorite school event is happening in just under 5 weeks.  The international festival!  Our classroom is presenting on South America.  On Friday, students had the opportunity to explore ideas they may be interested in further investigating.   Your child may complete a project on anything relating to South America.  They can choose a particular country, animal or animals, food, culture, land marks, etc.  The sky is the limit.  Lower Elementary will be presenting on Thursday, December 17th.  Every student will need to have a completed tri-fold presentation board completed by the 15th.   (This is the only home project that this board is required). The day of the festival, students are welcome to bring artifacts, food samples, etc. Mark your calendars.  Families are encouraged to come and visit all the lower elementary classrooms from 12:30-2:30 p.m. on Thursday.  Upper elementary will be presenting on Wednesday the 16th from 9:00-11:00 a.m.  You are welcome to come and visit during those times.  If you do choose to come, you are encouraged to visit other classrooms with your child.  If you have questions, please send me an email.

Volunteers

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Just a reminder that we could really use some volunteers to come and help with the class during the week.  Here is the link.  If you can only come every other week, please sign up and make a note of that.  We will take any help.  Those of you who did sign up, we would love to see you this week.  Thank you so much for your willingness.

Parent Teacher Conference

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Parent Teacher Conferences with be held October 12th, 13th, and 14th.  You may sign up here.  I have scheduled conferences every 20 minutes in order to accommodate more schedules.  If you need more than 20 minutes, please feel free to sign up for two times back to back.  If your child works in another classroom, please feel free to sign up on both schedules at the same time and I will come and meet with you in the other classroom.  I look forward to visiting with you all very soon.

Homework Folders

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First, thank you so much for helping your child learn accountability and making certain they are completing their nightly reading and returning their folders each week.

Today, in your child’s take home folder, they brought home a small slip of paper explaining our school literary magazine.  This is an opportunity to create original work to be submitted to The MMA Review.  The deadline for submissions is November 5th.  If interested, students will be given class time to work on projects.  Please feel free to talk with your child about some possible submissions pieces they would be interested in creating.

Also, we as a school are working hard to be mindful of our paper usage.  I did not send home reading logs this week.  My hope is that the habits are being established and that the reading is taking place for 20 minutes each night.  If you feel that having an actual log helps your child be accountable for their reading, please let me know and I will place one in their folder, otherwise, I will not be sending them.  Starting next week, we will be sending home a brief reading assignment to complete in relationship to their reading.

Home projects will start in October.  Our first topic will be Zoology.  Level 1: vertebrates, Level 2: the human body, and Level 3: invertebrates.  I will first explain the criteria to the students tomorrow and then I will send out a blog post explaining the criteria and the topics through the end of the school year.   So please be on the lookout.

Also, there was no flier sent out, but MMA cafe is starting tomorrow.  Students may purchase items from the cafe for lunch.  The menu will initially start small and will grow over the coming weeks.  The following are items are available at this time:

Chocolate Milk  ($1.00)  Capri Sun ($.75)  Microwave Mac n Cheese ($1.50)  Pancakes (chocolate chip or blueberry 3 for $.75)  Fruit Snacks (.$50)  and Fruit/Nut bites ($.25 cents)

My understanding is that Jr. high will run the cafe on Tuesdays and 6th grade will run the cafe on Thursdays.  The cafe is a fundraiser for their travel field trips in the spring.

As always, please feel free to share celebrations, concerns, or questions via email at bherrera@mariamontessoriacademy.org

Oh!  Just a small side note, Ms. Susan will be out until Thursday due to training.

 

Ogden Nature Center Field Trip

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Our next field trip is Thursday, March 26th.  We will be eating lunch, at school, at 11:00 a.m. and then getting ready to join our rides, just after 11:30 a.m.  The early childhood classroom rides will be outside at this time, so we will  meet all our rides, in the North Shore parking lot.  Please arrive no later than 11:35 a.m.  Our field trip is scheduled from 12:00 p.m.- 2:00 p.m., we want to make certain we arrive on time.  Ogden Nature Center has a strict no sibling policy and I must have a clear count on how many chaperones are attending.  They ask that all chaperones leave their cellphones off and be respectful of the presentation. I already have the required number of chaperones. If you feel that you are wanting to attend, please email me no later than Friday, so I can make the proper arrangements with Ogden Nature Center.  Please note, extra chaperones will need to pay for their own admission, which is $3.  Certified drivers, your admission is already arranged.  We are so fortunate to have a wonderful group of ladies who will drive your children.  Please sign up for a ride here.  I already had a few parents email me and ask for rides, please double check that I have placed your child with a driver.  If seats fill and you still need a ride, please email me. I do have a parent, she is not a certified driver, but she has given me permission to share her contact information, so you can contact her directly and arrange your own ride.  Also, please make certain permission slips are sent soon.  If I do not have them by Tuesday morning, your child will not be able to attend.

Take Home folders

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Today, we sent home a red permission slip for our field trip to the dinosaur park on March 12th.  Please read it over and send it back to school.  We also sent home a purple paper stapled to your child’s work charts.  Please, look these over, sign, and return that you have reviewed these with your child.  We have seen some great things happening, but this past week several student have really lost their momentum.  We thought creating some accountability may help get things back on track and focused during the Spring months.  We also have a new reading log.  The students will break down their reading according to fiction and non-fiction and write a brief writing sample relating to what they have read.  These will be due back, in their folders, for next Monday.  At this time, I will not assign specific IXL math lessons (several don’t follow the recommendation lessons, anyhow), but I do wish for students to still work daily on IXL.  We are getting into the year where several students are at different progression and I don’t want to hold others back or create for others to fall behind.  I find most of the students are just choosing what they want to work on anyway and are not following the outline.  This is fine, just remember, if they are struggling and don’t understand after some brief guidance, IXL will show them as well,  please have them close out the lesson and move onto another concept.  We want this to be enjoyable and helpful.  Also, don’t forget home projects are due this Friday.  This project is the State home project.  I feel that having a balanced life is important.  Aside from reading,  if students are working little by little on their home projects and not procrastinating until the end, a good time gauge is about 10 minutes a night of homework per grade level.  This would equate to 10 minutes for first grade, 20 minutes for second grade, and 30 minutes for third grade.  We should be modeling that reading is an enjoyable recreational activity and I would not necessarily count this time as homework.  If your child is a struggling beginning reader,  this time may need to be counted as homework.  You make the judgement which best fits your child.  Just to put things into perspective, in our classroom alone, we have students who are just barely combining letter sounds all the way to reading on Jr. High level.  It makes it difficult to give everyone the same assignment when everyone is at different places in their personal growth. Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing the student’s creativity with their State projects this week.

Gala

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Families, recently your child brought home a paper reminding you about our 5th Annual Gala event, taking place on Saturday, March 21st.  This is our big fundraising event for the year.  This is a great time to have a night out for a great cause, your children!  Money raised helps provide funds for your child’s school.  Ticket prices will go up after Parent Teacher Conference.

Reminder that Parent Teacher Conference sign up is currently posted.  If your child works with both myself and another teacher, please sign up at the same time on both schedules and we will all sit together for conferences.  Students are encouraged to attend this round of conference, it is a great way to discuss their accomplishments and create accountability.  Reminder that next week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, are all early out days for conference.  School will be off  Friday the 13th and Monday the 16th.

Student will be able to bring Valentines to exchange on Thursday the 12th,  Any treats will need to be in sealed envelopes to enjoy after school.  Please know that Valentines exchange is completely optional.  For those who wish to participate, I will get a list of our class names to send home with the students in their folders for next Monday.

Home projects were fantastic for January!  Please get started soon on this months assignment.  We will soon be discussing rubrics as an evaluation tool for our home projects.

As always, questions, concerns, or celebrations, please email me.  Thank you, to those of you who have been supporting your students on their IXL, this weeks lessons are posted.  Also, thank you to our third grade families for supporting your child on Utah Compose.  I wish we had more computers to accomidate more time during class for these computer based assignments.  So please, remember to attend our Gala, this money helps to fund our technology and create more computers for our classrooms.

I look forward to visiting with you soon.